Matthew Morgan "Matt" Ryan, OAM (born 3 June 1964 in Sydney, New South Wales) is an

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...

-level

equestrian The word equestrian is a reference to equestrianism, or horseback riding, derived from Latin ' and ', "horse". Horseback riding (or Riding in British English) Examples of this are: * Equestrian sports *Equestrian order, one of the upper classes i ...

rider. He is a triple Olympic gold medalist who competed for Australia. Matt has three older brothers, including the internationally successful eventer and dressage rider,

Heath Ryan Heath Ryan (born 2 July 1958) is an Australian equestrian who represented Australia at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing as part of the dressage team. Born in Sydney, Ryan was Australia's three-day event champion three times, and won every I ...

. In 1984. he travelled to Britain to train with the great

Richard Meade Richard John Hannay Meade (4 December 1938 – 8 January 2015) was Britain's most successful male equestrian at the Olympics. He was a triple Olympic gold medalist and the first British rider to win an individual Olympic title. He also won ...

, before returning home the following year, and then went back to the UK in 1989 to set up a stable. He has won three Olympic gold medals, two at the

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1992, ca, Jocs Olímpics d'estiu de 1992), officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XXV Olimpiada, ca, Jocs de la XXV Olimpíada) and commonly known as ...

in Barcelona and one at the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 ( Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from ...

in Sydney. Additionally, he finished 8th at the 1992

Badminton Horse Trials The Badminton Horse Trials is a five-day event, one of only six annual Concours Complet International (CCI) Five Star events as classified by the Fédération Équestre Internationale (FEI). It takes place in April or May each year in the p ...

, was selected for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics (but had to withdraw a few days before competition due to horse injury), and was the reserve rider for the 2004 Athens Olympics. His two gold medal-winning horses, Kibah Tic Toc and Sandstone, were bred by

Bridget Hyem Bridget Anne Hyem (26 September 1933 – 3 March 2014), née MacIntyre and known as Bud, was the first female equestrian to represent Australia at an Olympic Games. She competed at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan Japan ( ja ...

, Australia's first female Olympic equestrian competitor. A few of his other major Badminton Horse Trials results are: 2nd 1995 Kibah Tic Toc, 4th 2007 Bonza Katoomba, 8th 2008 Bonza Puzzle. One of his up-and-coming young horses is Bonza Kingscanyon, who is being campaigned at novice level. Matt has a daughter called Millie and a dog called Wombat. He had a previous marriage with Nikki Ryan, also an eventer and current 5* eventing trainer. Ryan was inducted into the

Sport Australia Hall of Fame The Sport Australia Hall of Fame was established on 10 December 1985 to recognise the achievements of Australian sportsmen and sportswomen. The inaugural induction included 120 members with Sir Don Bradman as the first inductee and Dawn Fraser th ...

in 2000. Ryan appeared in Episode 4 Series 4 of the British reality TV show, The Hotel, as a guest on a family holiday in

Torquay Torquay ( ) is a seaside town in Devon, England, part of the unitary authority area of Torbay. It lies south of the county town of Exeter and east-north-east of Plymouth, on the north of Tor Bay, adjoining the neighbouring town of Paig ...

, UK where he opened the beach party.

References

External links

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* * * 1964 births Living people Olympic equestrians for Australia Australian male equestrians Olympic gold medalists for Australia Equestrians at the 1992 Summer Olympics Equestrians at the 2000 Summer Olympics Australian event riders Sportspeople from Sydney Olympic medalists in equestrian Recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia Sport Australia Hall of Fame inductees Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1992 Summer Olympics 20th-century Australian people Sportsmen from New South Wales {{Australia-equestrian-bio-stub